New Orleans Unsolved

New Orleans Unsolved is an independent narrative true crime podcast based in the historic city of New Orleans. Investigator/producer Anna Christie and veteran journalist Thanh Truong dive deep into unsolved cases and lesser-known stories from New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region. Season 1 focused on the mysterious death of a teenager whose body was recovered from the Mississippi River. Season 2, The Rope Murders, revolves around a set of cold cases involving murder victims who were ritualistically tied up and left in desolate areas of Louisiana and Mississippi.

Episode 27, Write the Wrongs 04/24/2024

Episode 27, Write the Wrongs New Orleans Unsolved began as a deep dive into one mysterious death. But in the six years Anna dedicated to investigate the cases that eventually became the basis for both seasons of the podcast, she discovered that rarely were the details isolated. They were part of a web consisting of cops, corruption and cruelty. In the season finale of The Rope Murders, Anna's investigation comes full circle. /episode/index/show/neworleansunsolved/id/30963758

Episode 26, Yet Again 04/17/2024

Episode 26, Yet Again The path of Anna's investigation takes her back to Pass Christian, Mississippi for a second look at the location where Mark Richardson's body was discovered. We also hear about a more sinister undercurrent of what ties these cases together and the shocking news that brings us to the present day. /episode/index/show/neworleansunsolved/id/30860048

Episode 25, Take The Long Way Home 04/10/2024

Episode 25, Take The Long Way Home The Rope Murders took place at a time which preceded what we've all come to know as forensic science. The murders of Dennis Turcotte, Mark Richardson and Daniel Dewey were also comitted before the internet age . Anna's investigation of the murders has never revolved around web-sleuthing. Much of it has revolved around making contact and connections. It has led her on a path to retrace the trail of a suspected serial killer. In this episode, Anna explains why taking the long way home revealed more than she expected. /episode/index/show/neworleansunsolved/id/30760073

Episode 24, The Dead End Road 04/03/2024

Episode 24, The Dead End Road Dead end roads don't always lead to dead ends, sometimes they lead to answers. Anna takes a trip to meet a listener that helps connect the dots to a location she has been searching for for years. /episode/index/show/neworleansunsolved/id/30656923

Episode 23, The Map 03/27/2024

Episode 23, The Map From digging into old records and newspaper archives to tracing faded genealogy lines, Anna has used different investigative techniques and tools. But the one tool that perhaps produced the most revelatory information has been a map that became available through a cab company. In this episode, Anna details what she placed on this map, and in turn, what she learned from it. She also makes a shocking discovery when she examines a document related to one of the Rope Murders. /episode/index/show/neworleansunsolved/id/30559473

Episode 22, The Photos 03/20/2024

Episode 22, The Photos Over the course of six years and two seasons of the podcast, Anna has been trying to decipher the identities of the murdered teenage boys who ended up in the photos that were eventually shown to other children. The individual who showed them those photos was a child predator. Anna's investigation has steadily cleared a path through a forest of questions. In this episode, she explains why what was in the background of those photos is perhaps as important as what was front and center in them. Her latest interview also brings us back to a place central to Season 1 of New Orleans Unsolved...the Ninth Ward. /episode/index/show/neworleansunsolved/id/30452668

Episode 21, Devil in the Detail 03/13/2024

Episode 21, Devil in the Detail Anna unexpectedly connects with a woman who had information that sent her reeling. The years Anna has spent investigating the Rope Murders have been filled with attempts to connect deaths, details and decades. It’s been a constant pursuit of this theory that the murders of Dennis Turcotte, Mark Richardson and Daniel Dewey were part of a wider web spun by predators masking as trustworthy people. In this episode, the interview Anna wasn’t quite prepared for reveals the story of a missing boy who, until now, only existed in the memory of a 10-year-old boy. /episode/index/show/neworleansunsolved/id/30349313

Episode 20, The Leak 03/06/2024

Episode 20, The Leak During Anna’s investigation of the Rope Murders, she found correlations to the mysterious case of Eddie Wells, the pedophile operation ran by Boy Scout Troop 137, and one person who seemed to have tentacles touching all those elements. But it took Anna years to find those connections. In the initial stages of her investigation, she had a working theory about the Rope Murders. That theory was tested when she was called to a meeting of law enforcement officers. Also tested was her trust in the people who attended that meeting. /episode/index/show/neworleansunsolved/id/30250663

Episode 19, The Footlocker 02/28/2024

Episode 19, The Footlocker Anna’s investigative focus stays on the Orange Grove Plantation as she sits down with a woman who, as a young girl, lived near the plantation in Plaquemines Parish and visited its grounds. Through Anna’s yearslong investigation of the Rope Murders, she’s come to believe the Orange Grove Plantation was a significant site. It was also a place a survivor from season 1 of New Orleans Unsolved was taken as a child. In this episode, he recalls the murky circumstances surrounding the times he ended up at the plantation, and why the man who took him there always kept the contents of a particular footlocker a secret. /episode/index/show/neworleansunsolved/id/30145508

Episode 18, The Shell Road 02/21/2024

Episode 18, The Shell Road Fragmented memories, fading landmarks and decades old newspaper articles have been among the puzzle pieces Anna has had to work with as her investigation of the Rope Murders took her deeper into Plaquemines Parish…and some of its troubled history. One place, located off what was described as the shell road, stood for more than a century. But for one person, it represents a dark point in his past. In this episode, Anna explores its possible connection to the Rope Murders. /episode/index/show/neworleansunsolved/id/30045633

Episode 17, The Dark Star 02/07/2024

Episode 17, The Dark Star The bodies of Dennis Turcotte, Mark Richardson and Daniel Dewey may have been found north of New Orleans, but as Anna as got deeper into her investigation of their murders and the crimes of Boy Scout Troop 137, her findings kept taking her south…to Plaquemines Parish. She discovered connections to some of its history of hate. At a remote site off the parish’s coast, there was physical evidence of that hate. In this episode, Anna explains the mystery around that site and how it fits into her investigation. /episode/index/show/neworleansunsolved/id/29837198

Episode 16, King of the Bayou 01/31/2024

Episode 16, King of the Bayou So far, Anna’s investigation of the Rope Murders has uncovered links to the pedophile cell that was Boy Scout Troop 137. While that troop may have been based in New Orleans East, Anna found that its tentacles reached outside of the city. In this episode, Anna’s investigation shifts to a place that was once dominated and defined by a segregationist who some called King of the Bayou. /episode/index/show/neworleansunsolved/id/29727828

Episode 15, Be Prepared 01/24/2024

Episode 15, Be Prepared The Boy Scout motto of “Be Prepared” predates the founding of the organization in 1910, but preparedness became a cornerstone of Scouting for the century that followed. In the case of Boy Scout Troop 137 in New Orleans, the crooked leaders of that troop were unprepared for the investigations and arrests that stemmed from the abuse inflicted on the children of that troop in the 1970’s. In this episode, Anna continues to connect the dots between victims of the Rope Murders, Troop 137 and the focus of our first season. /episode/index/show/neworleansunsolved/id/29621208

Episode 14, Scout's Dishonor 01/17/2024

Episode 14, Scout's Dishonor Over the two seasons of the podcast, Anna’s investigations have involved the mysterious deaths of teenage boys and the abuse of young children. As she continued her work on the Rope Murders, she kept finding a connection to an organization that was historically known to be a place for boys and young children. /episode/index/show/neworleansunsolved/id/29521958

Episode 13, The Trapper 01/10/2024

Episode 13, The Trapper Anna begins to lay out her four-year investigation of the Rope Murders. It includes a familiar person from season one who said he was shown photographs of dead boys tied up and left in rural settings. Anna analyzes the locations where the victims of the Rope Murders were left. What did they have in common? And to gain a better understanding of how something or someone can be hogtied, we turn to a man named Trapper John. /episode/index/show/neworleansunsolved/id/29417688

Episode 12, The City 01/03/2024

Episode 12, The City It took almost 30 years for investigators to identify Daniel Dewey’s body. For almost as long, a narrative kept repeating in newspapers and online articles that Dewey and the two other victims of the rope murders may have been male prostitutes or well-known street kids in the city of New Orleans. But was that really the case? We pose that question to Dennis Stewart and relatives of two of the victims. /episode/index/show/neworleansunsolved/id/29299258

Episode 11, Texas 12/20/2023

Episode 11, Texas In the summer of 2000, the remains of John Doe were exhumed from his grave at Pine Hill Cemetery in St. Helena Parish. He had been buried for more than 20 years. Back in 1979, his body had been tied up and left at a local garbage dump in the parish. There were hopes that technology and forensic science could finally reveal the boy’s identity. Those hopes quickly faded until the discovery of an encounter in Texas. /episode/index/show/neworleansunsolved/id/29151638

Episode 10, The FACES Lab 12/13/2023

Episode 10, The FACES Lab For roughly 20 years, John Doe’s body had been buried at Pine Hill Cemetery in St. Helena Parish. At the time of his burial and in the two decades that followed, there wasn't much progress in finding a suspect in his murder. The victim’s true identity also remained elusive. In the summer of 2000, officials and investigators physically dug up the past. They exhumed John Doe’s remains. In an attempt to finally put a name to the boy who had been ritualistically tied up and left in rural Louisiana, his remains would be sent to a place called The FACES Lab. /episode/index/show/neworleansunsolved/id/29039348

Episode 9, Baton Rouge 12/06/2023

Episode 9, Baton Rouge In 1997, after almost 20 years of cold case status, the murders of Dennis Turcotte, Mark Richardson and John Doe would get renewed interest. Dennis Stewart was a relatively new detective with Louisiana State Police, but his knowledge of one of the Rope Murders went back to 1979. Stewart grew up in Greensburg, Louisiana, not far from where John Doe’s body was discovered. He remembered hearing about the boy being tied up and left at the garbage dump in St. Helena Parish. Detective Stewart was determined to find the boy’s identity. To do that, John Doe’s body would have to be exhumed. /episode/index/show/neworleansunsolved/id/28944538

Episode 8, The Quarter 11/29/2023

Episode 8, The Quarter When each victim of the rope murders was found, investigators didn’t make any public mention of a serial pattern or perpetrator. But, within a month after the discovery of John Doe’s body in St. Helena Parish, at least one newspaper ran a story about the boys being “male hustlers” who may have been stalked by a “sex killer”. The hustling scene in the French Quarter of New Orleans has been a real thing for decades. Whether these victims were part of that scene is far less certain, but the stigma it placed on the cases was hard to deny. What was it like in the Quarter when the murders took place? We take a journey back to a time full of nostalgia, but also violence. /episode/index/show/neworleansunsolved/id/28832658

Episode 7, Pine Hill 11/22/2023

Episode 7, Pine Hill In 1979, Jack Foster was assigned the case of a teenaged boy who had been ritualistically tied up, murdered and left at a local garbage site in St. Helena Parish. Foster was a self-taught detective working part time with the sheriff’s office. He was described as determined and thorough. But, those qualities wouldn’t be enough to find out the boy's true identity, let alone the person responsible for killing him. The case was a local mystery. When Foster fell into a bizarre coma during the investigation, it only added to that mystery. /episode/index/show/neworleansunsolved/id/28737398

Episode 6, St. Helena Parish 11/15/2023

Episode 6, St. Helena Parish On November 12, 1979, the tiny sheriff’s department in St. Helena Parish was just beginning its investigation of a body that had been ritualistically tied-up and left at a garbage dumpsite. The body was decomposing. Identifying the victim was difficult. What authorities could say definitively was that it appeared to be the body of a teenage boy. In an attempt to identify that boy, the sheriff’s grandson says he was taken to the scene. What he and the deputies saw that day would stick with them for decades to come. /episode/index/show/neworleansunsolved/id/28645083

Episode 5, Greensburg 11/08/2023

Episode 5, Greensburg Following a coroner’s inquest jury in Harrison County, it was determined that Mark Richardson’s death was the result of a homicide. The coroner presumed Richardson died from a possible overdose of injected drugs, but the actual cause of death was undetermined. No explanation or theory was offered about the fact that Richardson was found with his hands and feet tied behind him. How was Richardson killed? What did the ropes have to do with his death? More than a year later, similar questions would be asked when the body of another victim was found tied up and left in Greensburg, La. /episode/index/show/neworleansunsolved/id/28551293

Episode 4, Biloxi 11/01/2023

Episode 4, Biloxi Two days after a tied-up body was found in a wooded area near coastal Mississippi, a family from Biloxi believed it was that of their teenage son. Only weeks separated the discoveries of his body and Dennis Turcotte’s. The fact that both victims had been ritualistically bound would seem to show a strong connection between the cases, but early in the Mississippi investigation, authorities were grappling with a basic but crucial question: who is the victim? /episode/index/show/neworleansunsolved/id/28480490

Episode 3, Pass Christian 10/25/2023

Episode 3, Pass Christian Soon after Dennis Turcotte’s body was discovered, the working theories about his death and disappearance revolved around New Orleans’ French Quarter. A New Orleans bellhop was said to be the last person who saw Turcotte alive. In this episode, Turcotte’s brother details what Dennis was doing before he went missing. In neighboring Mississippi, a second investigation begins after the body of another teenager is found. /episode/index/show/neworleansunsolved/id/28415072

Episode 2, Slidell 10/18/2023

Episode 2, Slidell After Dennis Turcotte’s body was discovered bound and dumped in 1978, New Orleans Police Detective Frank Weicks traveled out of his jurisdiction to the rural area of Talisheek to assist in the case. The working theory was Turcotte had spent time in New Orleans’ French Quarter and was possibly kidnapped from there. But once at the crime scene, Weicks found some pressing and practical problems. In this episode, Weicks explains his concerns about the integrity of the investigation. And a suspect emerges. Who is he? How did he know Dennis Turcotte? /episode/index/show/neworleansunsolved/id/28352342

Episode 1, Talisheek 10/11/2023

Episode 1, Talisheek The creators of New Orleans Unsolved are finally back with their second season. This time, they’re investigating a set of truly mysterious murders. In 1978, hunters found the body of a teenager in a rural area of Louisiana. His hands and feet were ritualistically tied, the rope was connected to his neck. Some described the way the victim was bound as “hogtied”. A veteran New Orleans Police detective was quickly called in to assist in the investigation. When he arrived at the location, he couldn’t believe how the crime scene was handled. Little did he know, there would be more scenes like it, and more victims. In the Rope Murders, Anna and Thanh follow the trail of a suspected serial killer. /episode/index/show/neworleansunsolved/id/28283675

The Rope Murders Trailer 09/29/2023

The Rope Murders Trailer Investigative producer Anna Christie and veteran journalist Thanh Truong are back with the second season of their independent true crime podcast. Season 2 of New Orleans Unsolved, The Rope Murders, begins October 11th, 2023. /episode/index/show/neworleansunsolved/id/28153472

Episode 18: Raleigh 12/21/2021

Episode 18: Raleigh The finale to season 1 has been more than a year in the making. Will Stanley Burkhardt remain in prison or go free? The judge's ruling finally comes down. /episode/index/show/neworleansunsolved/id/21552488

Episode 17: Urquhart Street 06/25/2020

Episode 17: Urquhart Street In the season finale, Stanley Burkhardt gets arrested again, but will he stay in prison? His testimony in a court hearing weighs heavily in that decision. The testimony includes details in Eddie Wells’ case. /episode/index/show/neworleansunsolved/id/14959445

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